Cathedral Cats

I bought this book for a friend who wasn't able to go cathedral hopping with me last summer in Great Britain and Ireland. When I returned home, I tried to explain to her that cathedral cats are more purposeful than our 'ordinary' lap cats--they have serious matters to contemplate such as fifteenth century pulpitums and the cathedral gardener's pet snake. I gave her this book to prove my point. The writing style is heavily British tongue-in-cheek, which keeps the book from mawkishness. Here is an example concerning Olsen, a Siamese chocolate point newcomer at Chester Cathedral: "After introducing himself around the cathedral close, getting locked in the free-standing 1970s bell tower, and having had his application for the position of food taster in the retreat house kitchen turned down, Olsen was tempted to dismiss the religious life." You may be wondering why a Siamese chocolate point would be named 'Olsen.' It is because of the cathedral's history: "Olsen and Hansen [an oriental red] are not the first Danes to make their presence felt in Chester. Vikings from Denmark and Norway swept through large areas of England in the ninth and tenth centuries..." So this book feeds you a bit of English history through the eyes of its cathedral cats. The photographs are also a mix of cat and cathedral, mostly in color. "Cathedral Cats" is definitely for ailurophiles only, especially if they also happen to be anglophiles.

The British journalist Richard Surman has worked 27 years long as a professional photographer world-wide for advertising clients and airlines - now he retreated to Spain with his South American wife to rest - however he is still nostalgic remembering back to his ancient Old England lifestyle-roots, its old-venerable church walls, canons, organists - and their cats. So he not only lists some of the most beautiful cathedrals in the U.K., but also adds the life-history of the cats living there beneath people working behind old church-walls. "Cats don't belong to people, they belong to places ..." once Wright Morris said - Richard Surman now delivers the photographies desrcibing this axiom. For example the story of the cat TOMKINS, who is designated after a composer: when cats-"owner" Peter Nardone, organist and Director of Music at Chelmsford Cathedral begins to mistreat the organ practising J.S. Bach, "Tomkins makes his way hastily upstairs to the guest bedroom, clambers onto the bed and sticks his head under a pillow." But Tomkins on the other hand takes pains to be helpful: "He always calls when the newspapers come through the letter box - though this may have more to do with his habit of sleeping on the doormat than a deliberate policy of helpfulness." A second example for the authors humoristic writing-style: Olsen, the cat of the Bishop of Chester, the Rt Rev. Dr Peter Foster, and his Danish wife Elizabeth, - Olsen "was tempted to dismiss the religious life. He turned instead to the lure of nights in the city,..." ignored "warnings about 'drunks, vagabonds, ladies of the night and the worst elements of society". Olson every night "found the ideal surroundings for his inscrutable and laid-back style": the nearby Alexander's Jazz Theatre. Richard Surman opens our heart not only for cats, but also for the cosy country and church-lives - not poisened by big-urban-areas hectic, brings us near to a perception of a world, in which the time seems to stopp. This tiny book inexpensive and affectionately replaces an England vacation, if the purse is empty...